Limping heads up

I've seen a lot of top pros implementing this strategy could someone explain the theory behind it and why they are not playing more aggro

and what was the structure of the HU ? hyper-turbo?

I love it when someone limps when HU with me, I love a free look at the flop, especially when I hit the flop hard with junk, if I don't hit I fold and have lost nothing.

It just changes up your game.

Limping does many different things, for example: It allows you to see cheap flops and win small pots. It allows you to control the pot against hyper aggressive players (ie. You limp, because you don't want to get re-raised and play a big pot with 89s, you can smooth call a raise). It disguises your hand (ie. most players raise any ace). When the villian gets short (ie. 20bb) you may not have a hand quite strong enough to call his shove but you want to see a flop.

You may see more limps depending on how many BB players have. If players have 100bb +, there is going to be a lot less limping. If the players have 50bb -, you could see a lot more limping.

HU is certainly a game upon itself and people specialize in it.

I think this tactic shows himself well with a large enough stack only. with a short stack game begins push-fold, and it kills the idea of poker games and brain))

It's pretty cool to play like that. The best players prefers to play with flopped cards. Also with such limp tactics, your opponent could be trapped. If he is all in once or twice after your limp, when you are folding, then you may set a trap like that.

yea its a good strat to use but not all the time.. i use it here and there so i make my game play unpredictable because most of the players you'll be playing HU youve probol played against unless its a tournament but even then its a good strat

i agree whit this. when stacks are high normally the game should begin from flop, the strategy could change when your stack or the rival stack is short, then is a good moment to take agressiveness.

with large stacks - good strategy

What happens in this strategy as everything has its good and bad side, the good thing is that it is more feasible that a faron works but you have to be very careful because some players who pretend not to know anything can turn you around and make you lose

I think it could be good to limp some hands when playing HU, just to vary your game and possibly confuse your opponent. HU is all about playing your opponent rather than your cards, it's very psychological.

I agree with karl on this one.

I can tell you what my thinking was on the final table heads up. I was kicking his ass and had a 4:1 chip lead...I was very aggressive raising and reraising. He then started reraising all in almost every hand. Was very frustrating to raise and fold. Against an all in frequently I just looked for cards I felt ahead of this range. I got AJ os. He went all in, I called...he had AK....instant double. I waited, got 44...called..he had 86 os...spiked the 6. Now I'm behind. I regrouped and started playing small ball...limping...calling his raise...seeing a flop and outplaying him. It worked and when I had him outchipped, I flopped good and got him to commit. End of story.

Limping has its merits.

Works with deep stack heads up 50 BB or more and against some opponents. Mostly dependent on opponent. Limping can irritate some opponents.

that's what I wanted to say. Well this is as you like. someone more comfortable with a short stack and someone on the contrary

unless you know you can get their stack on post flop (slow roll them) it's generaly no use. Free flop for them and you possibly good PRF hands is now being beat by ome trash like 38o =)

I have recently updated my heads up strategy to implement a limping strategy. Basically, when stacks are in the 25 BBs range, the BB can shove profitably against your opens pretty wide and put you in a bad spot when you are opening a wide range. The pros who have adopted this strategy have done so as a defense against the 3 bet shove with these stacks.

From the SB, heads up I like to play up to 80% of my hands. If you are playing less than 60%, your are folding too often from the SB. But if I am min raising 80% that would allow the BB to shove 40%or more. So against this type of player, if you limp, they can raise, but they can't jam stacks this large, but then you put them into a bad spot with their raise as you can now jam over their raise.

Olivier Bisquet was one of the first pros I saw start to implement this, then I got some charts from Jonathan Little's book's bonus chapter on his limp/jam, limp/call, and limp/fold ranges.

If you are playing a straight forward player who is not exploiting your open range by shoving wide, then keep raising. I only make this adjustment against better players who are 3 bet shoving my opens wide.

i think its a great strategy, hope it doesnt catch on more because it eliminates a lot of profitable shoves

I guess is the Slow Play I use when want not to scare the players, but it should only be used If you are 99% sure you hold the winning hand.

Limping can be a good way to obscure your range HU but used too often it can get abused by better players

I will limp for two reasons Headsup...

First is I am confident that my post flop play is better than the player I am up against and they have tells such as checking the flop and betting the turn at a high percentage,betting when they hit and folding when they dont have it etc.

Second they over react to a open limp and I can take advantage that way.
They see a limp and bet pot or 5xbet and I end up with more commitment from them to the pot then I would if I opened with a std 3xbb.
Sometimes that same player will cbet 100% of flops due to the size and that sort of player rarely adjusts in time.
When they do adjust it is in the extreme the other way where you can get them to fold turn on a 1/4 pot bet.

It is also not early on to establish image that you can exploit later or very soon after.

an adition...

normally a loose play is not recomended in a full table because if you play a bad hand it's obvious that the probabilities of finding a rival whit a good hand are high and if you have a good hand there some probabilities that someone could call you whit a good hand but not better that yours. but when you play heads-up there are only 2 players, what does it mean? if you have a bad hand , there are a high porbabilities that your rival have also a bad hand so for that reason is recommendable to play many hands as you can.

because when you limp in sb then bb might think you have a weak hand so you can make a re raise if villain raise on preflop or postflop. when you limp all the hands its difficult for villain to put you on a range so thats why limping might be a good strategy. however i think mixing up the game is the best strategy to win in heads up.

I lost a heads up match on tournament final with a limper who had 92 and I had KQ. flop was Q 9 2. Since then, I try to not to play slow in heads up match on final table.

What was your raise, that he calls with this hand?
Otherwise, you limped KQ in this hand ...

Read the title of the thread

Never!

Limping is good when you or your opponent have around 20 big blinds and if you believe you have more post flop skill it's definitely a good strategy.

Sometimes I limp HU, but if I am leaderchip I usually shove, I just limp with speculatives cards.

I used to play tolkro Heads up and realized that the aggro style approach only in Heads Up Hyper-Turbo, in the conventional heads up games lyudya try to use the strategy game where luck plays a minimal role.